How about a little late fall or early winter, check-in? Think about the last few months most of us have had.
Have you noticed how it seems like September starts like it is attached to a rocket? Then into Thanksgiving, sometimes it feels like more pressure rather than giving thanks. Halloween – that season when we eat all that ‘healthy food’.
We are coming up to a special time for me, and no it is not Christmas. Even though Christmas can be very special. It is Remembrance Day in Canada, and Veterans Day in the USA. That time when red poppies are worn on many jackets and tops.
Do you and I ever just pause, do more than wear a red poppy, or [for some] get a day off work?
To you from failing hands we throw the torch, be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. “In Flanders Fields”
John McCrae
What if we paused to take 2 minutes on 11 – 11 – 11?
From September to Thanksgiving to Halloween things can be so rushed. It is so easy to think that we are busy, all the pressures and demands that are placed on us with the cost of living, mortgage rates, or interest charges – but think about this in a different way; we are living and there is a cost.
We have interest on debts we may have incurred, so to reframe this theme; just asking if we are paying the interest on the debt we owe for our freedom?
The wars happening around the world may be through a camera lens, a family member, or friends, however, we in Canada are not in a war at this time. We do however have personnel serving in places all around the world, representing the cost of living and paying the interest on this debt for our freedom. Do we take for granted our Canadian way of life, values, and institutions? The freedom to participate in religious, cultural, and political events, with our right to live under a government of our choice.
Every country has issues, after all, it is made up of humans. We have a history because men and women truly believed what King George VI said at the dedication of the National War Memorial, Ottawa, on May 21, 1939,;
“Without freedom there can be no enduring peace and without peace no enduring freedom.”
King George VI
By remembering their service and their sacrifice, we recognize the tradition of freedom these men and women fought to preserve. They believed that their actions in their present would make a significant difference in the future. The challenge is that it is up to you and me to ensure that their dream of peace is realized. To be successful at this requires an unhuman response. It requires self-less and not selfish. It requires ‘we’ thinking not ‘I’ thinking. It is about the greater good, not mine. This never starts with the word ‘my’ or ‘mine’. On Remembrance Day, we acknowledge the courage and sacrifice of those who served their country and acknowledge our responsibility to work for the peace they fought hard to achieve.
I know in Canada we have the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and without going down a rabbit hole, my question is simple; Is Freedom a Right or a Privilege?
A THOUGHT FOR THINKING ABOUT:
There are 525600 minutes in a year [not counting next year as a leap year] Therefore for 2 minutes a year, we are talking about 1/262800 not a very big fraction in my world,
Would You Take 2 Minutes For Freedom?
